defence
by which the military and feudal sovereignties of old times fortified
their dwellings. On the side of the courtyards a multitude of little
{4} streets contain a hostile population ready to swell every riot.
Near the Pavilion of Marsan is the Palais Royal, that headquarters of
insurrection, with its cafes, its gambling-dens, its houses of
ill-fame, its wooden galleries which are known as the camp of the
Tartars. It is the Duke of Orleans who has democratized the Palais
Royal. In spite of the sarcasms of the aristocracy and the lawsuits of
neighboring proprietors, he has destroyed the fine gardens bounded by
the rue de Richelieu, the rue des Petit-Champs, and the rue des
Bons-Enfants. In the place it occupied he has caused the rue de
Valois, the rue de Beaujolais, and the rue de Montpensier to be opened,
all of them inhabited by a revolutionary population. The remaining
space he has surrounded on three sides with constructions pierced by
galleries, where he has built the shops that form the finest bazaar in
Europe. The fourth side of these new constructions was originally
intended to form part of the Prince's palace, and to be composed of an
open colonnade supporting suites of apartments. But this side has not
been erected. In place of it the Duke of Orleans has run up some
temporary wooden sheds, containing three rows of shops separated by two
large passage-ways, the ground of which has not even been made level.

The privileges pertaining to the Orleans family prevent the police from
entering the enclosure of the Palais Royal. Hence it becomes the
rendezvous of all conspirators. The taking of the Bastille was {5}
plotted there, and there the 20th of June and the 10th of August will
yet be organized.

A little further off is the National Assembly. Its sessions are held
in the riding-school built when the little Louis XV. was to be taught
horsemanship. It adjoins the terrace of the Feuillants. One of its
courtyards which looks towards the front of the edifice, is at the
upper end of the rue de Dauphin. The other extremity occupies the site
where the rue Castiglione will be opened later on. There, close beside
the Tuileries, sits the National Assembly, the rival and victorious
power that will overcome the monarchy.

The Assembly terrorizes the Tuileries. The Jacobin Club terrorizes the
Assembly. Close beside the Hall of the Manege, on the site to be
occupied afterward by the market of Saint-Honor